May 197 7 RAIN Page 7 :::':. by BPA-utility-industry complex in 19g5, L99O or whenever. Or whether we could realisrically coriserve and slowly swirch to solar and wind instead, as mandated by most of the energy legislation setring overall state policies up here in the northf' west corner of America. Although the conclusions reached in this ground-breaking regional perspecrive are likeiy to have npA-uiility-industry ' powerplex lobbyists up late at night with their calculatori trying to shoot holes in the num6ers backing them up, the end-use technique supports the validity of eiergy conservation,euen uitbout going to the energy quality oiheat-range level ot analysis made famous by physicist Amory Lovins. From his studies of Canada, Japan and the U.S., Lovins found that no advanced, industrialized nation needs more than 5 to lOVo of all its energy in that high-quality form we call electricity. Future P.N.W. studies should bigin with a survey of regional thermodynamic requirements s6 that we can tell exactly where, how and when renewable energy sysrems can be most economically applied ro replace inefflciently used electric power for low- and medium-heat needs. Who knows? We may even find that the wind-turbines many of us would like to see off-shore or turning slowly like large flowers on the Colum.bia. Gorge's cliff edges and hills rn"! b., rarjonally rf n-ot aesrherically or symbolically, unnecessary. Sigh. Yet, even with 9O% of our electric power alieady" based on renewable hydro-power, it seems we still need comforting reports such as you'll find on these pages ro kick us in the - rear, ge r us off the dime and moving toward the only longterm solution that can maintain reliable, low-cost energy supplies'.a complete switch to the inexhaustible energi-es of sun, wind and biomass. This NRDC'.conservarion + r-enewable energy" furure forecast is rhe first step in that direction and totally consistent with the new administration's avowed energy policy. - Let's hope the top{evel, mercenary bureaucrars at BpA, who switch chameieon-like from .,conservation's a drop in the bucket" to "conservation's our best hope" at the change of a president, are speedily re.moved by And'rus-Schlesinger:Carter. Real conservation initiatives, suctr as rhose outlined in this scenario, must be directed by new people who, if still of the technocraric ilk, wili at least hew to thi new federal conven_ tional wisdom on energy. Or all of us in this watershed will be up the Columbia without a rarionai energy paddle . . . drifting amidst a river of nuclear and coal plants.- (Highly recommended, especiaily if you live in Oregon, Wash.ington, Idaho and Monrana. Somewhat technicallyet worth plowing through, if only to know rhat a more arrracrive energy policy can be seriously considered.) lyergt: Tbe.Solar Prospect (Worldwatch paper II), by Denis Hayes, March 1977, 79 pp., $2.00 postpaid lrom, Worldwatch Institute 1776 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 Get this fine piece of work to puil out of your hip pocket and put slo,w learners (utility executives, public utility commissioners and "big is beauriful" engineers) onto the opportunities excitingly before all of us' "The attractions of sunlight, wind, running water and green plants as energy sources are self-evidint. Had industrial civilization been built upon such forms of :ner.gl 'income' instead of on the energy stored in fossil fuels, any proposal to convert toloal or uranium for the world's future energy would doubtless be viewed with incredulous horror. The current prospecr, however, is the reverse-a shift from trouble-ridden sources to more attractive ones. Of the possible worlds
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